Lamentations for Holy and Great Saturday

In a grave they laid Thee,
O my life and my Christ;
and the armies of the Angels were sore amazed,
as they sang the praise of Thy submissive love.

How, O Life, canst Thou die?
Or abide in a grave?
For Thou dost destroy the kingdom of death, O Lord,
and Thou raisest up the dead of Hades realm.

Now we magnify Thee,
O Lord Jesus, our King;
and we venerate Thy Passion and Burial,
whereby from corruption’s bowels are we redeemed.

Thou Who didst establish
the earth’s bounds dost now dwell
in a small grave, O my Jesus, Thou king of all,
who dost call the dead to leave their graves and rise.

O my dear Christ Jesus,
King and Ruler of all,
why to them that dwelt in Hades didst Thou descend?
Was it not to set the race of mortals free?

Lo, the Sov’reign Ruler
of creation is dead
and is buried in a tomb never used before,
He that emptied all the graves of all their dead.

In a grave they laid Thee,
O my Life and my Christ.
Yet behold now, by Thy death, death is stricken down,
and Thou pourest forth life’s streams for all the world.

– Excerpt from the Lamentations, The First Stasis, for Holy and Great Saturday